This is the ending of a Sermon entitled: “Get Ready” – Repentance given December 10, 2023
Scripture: Mark 1:1-8.
Beginning of good news
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, 2 happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah:
Look, I am sending my messenger before you.
He will prepare your way,
3 a voice shouting in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight.”
John’s preaching
4 John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. 5 Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins. 6 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The question becomes what is our role then? In light of this season, and all we know now plus the scripture I would say this is our role:
- Our role is to receive the gift. The gift of grace is offered to us every day. Thru Christ…Jesus is grace. Jesus is the gift. Receive.
- Our role is to pause amid our preparations. I’m really glad that you were here today. That you have paused your life to worship God. Because I know what the schedule looks like the frantic schedules: the choir concerts, the school programs, the sports, the family get-togethers, the extended family get-togethers, the baking, the shopping, and the decorating – yes to pause is holy, and to know this as you pause:
God is still with us.
God is at work right now through you continuing the good news. And this isn’t only in the season of advent. This work goes on season after season and year after year whether we’re celebrating Christmas or not
God is not done, even though we are not yet what God has planned for us to be, we are on the road and God isn’t finished.
And knowing all this we also remember that all of those facts will always be bigger than your greatest fear and your greatest worry.
- And I would be remiss not to bring up the third role that we have. Because it is exactly what John the Baptist was telling the people of Israel he was calling them to metanoia, which means to repent more literally to turn towards God. You see when we hear the word repent again like the word sin for many of us it holds baggage, but what is being said here is that we are called to a change of mind to a revealing of the places where we’re missing the mark and to turn away from those things towards God.
When I hear this, I cannot help but think of Saint Augustine, who explains humanity, as incurvatus in se. This means that all of us, all of humanity, is curved in on itself. This was his way of saying that we are sinful and imperfect. We do miss the mark. We don’t always get it right.
Pastor Rich Villodas dives deeply into this Latin phrase, and he explains that this curving in on oneself is a failure to love. He defines sin as a failure to love. And his entire basis for this is the greatest commandment, given by Jesus:
Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment in the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Matthew 22:37–40.
He says that Jesus’ summary of Scripture leads him to conclude what might surprise us: if the greatest commandment given by Jesus is rooted in love, then the greatest sin, and perhaps all sin is in some way the rejection of the command. Which leads him to say sin is a failure to love.
The awesomeness to remember though, is that the antidote to incurvatus in se, the antidote to our failure to love, the antidote to sin is always the cross of Christ.
But even there we have a role. To un-curve we must believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but with that also comes exactly what John the Baptist calls for, repentance. Something we do throughout our journey. Not a once-and-done.
I invite you as we close today to think of repentance as a genuine desire to change and as having parts. Humility. Prayer. A seeking. And then turning. – I call it A.S.C.
- Acknowledge: Humility is what we just talked about the realization that we are all curved inward on ourselves. The realization that there are times when we don’t reach out, there are times when we self-protect, there are times when we lie, there are times when we fail to love. We all need course corrections. Prayer. This is where we confess we tell God where we have messed up – maybe we can’t even tell God that we’re not exactly sure of all the places that we’ve messed up but we know we have.
- Seek. This isn’t just seeking God only, but seeking the power to be helped. To be open to the spirit, to the strength, and to change. Say, “God I seek you.” Open scripture.
- Change/ Turn. This is moving from those ways that we missed the mark toward God and God‘s spirit. What turning or change can you make today?.
The rallying cry of John the Baptist. Is the rallying cry of us all and I pray the rallying cry of this church. Because it sounds like a cry, a calling:
Toward God.
Toward hope.
Toward grace.
Toward love.
To the cross.
Toward peace.
Toward home. Which is the connection with God.
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